Month: March 2005

Romans 11
The Remnant of Israel
1, I ask then: Did God reject his people? By no means! I am an Israelite myself, a descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin. 2. God did not reject his people, whom he foreknew. Don’t you know what the Scripture says in the passage about Elijah how he appealed to God against Israel: Lord, they have killed your prophets and torn down your altars; I am the only one left, and they are trying to kill me”? 4And what was God’s answer to him? “I have reserved for myself seven thousand who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” 5. So too, at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace. 6. And if by grace, then it is no longer by works; if it were, grace would no longer be grace.
7. What then? What Israel sought so earnestly it did not obtain, but the elect did. The others were hardened, 8. as it is written: “God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes so that they could not see and ears so that they could not hear, to this very day.” 9. And David says: “May their table become a snare and a trap, a stumbling block and a retribution for them. 10. May their eyes be darkened so they cannot see, and their backs be bent forever.”
Ingrafted Branches
11. Again I ask: Did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery? Not at all! Rather, because of their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel envious. 12. But if their transgression means riches for the world, and their loss means riches for the Gentiles, how much greater riches will their fullness bring!
13. I am talking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch as I am the apostle to the Gentiles, I make much of my ministry 14in the hope that I may somehow arouse my own people to envy and save some of them. 15, For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? 16If the part of the dough offered as firstfruits is holy, then the whole batch is holy; if the root is holy, so are the branches.
17. If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root, 18. do not boast over those branches. If you do, consider this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you. 19You will say then, “Branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in.” 20. Granted. But they were broken off because of unbelief, and you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but be afraid. 21. For if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either.
22. Consider therefore the kindness and sternness of God: sternness to those who fell, but kindness to you, provided that you continue in his kindness. Otherwise, you also will be cut off. 23. And if they do not persist in unbelief, they will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. 24. After all, if you were cut out of an olive tree that is wild by nature, and contrary to nature were grafted into a cultivated olive tree, how much more readily will these, the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree!
All Israel Will Be Saved
25. I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers, so that you may not be conceited: Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in. 26. And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: “The deliverer will come from Zion; he will turn godlessness away from Jacob. 27. And this is my covenant with them when I take away their sins.”
28. As far as the gospel is concerned, they are enemies on your account; but as far as election is concerned, they are loved on account of the patriarchs, 29. for God’s gifts and his call are irrevocable. 30. Just as you who were at one time disobedient to God have now received mercy as a result of their disobedience, 31. so they too have now become disobedient in order that they too may now receive mercy as a result of God’s mercy to you. 32. For God has bound all men over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all.
Doxology
33. Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments,
and his paths beyond tracing out! 34. “Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?” 35. “Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him?” 36. For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen.

One of the steps to recovery asks that we take a searching and fearless inventory of our life, and in the following steps to deal with the results accordingly. In this process we “Cut off” that which is causing us harm, and we “Graft in” that which will make our lives better.
One of the things God wants to do is to graft you into his Life-Giving body (the body of Christ). Isn’t is a wonderful thought that we become part of God’s recovery plan by allowing ourselves to be grafted in?

What things have you needed to cut off from your life in order to be healthy?

What things do you need to “graft in” to your life to become more healthy?

How can our group help?

We appreciate you being a “grafted in” part of our “group tree”!!

Romans 10
1. Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved. 2. For I can testify about them that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge. 3. Since they did not know the righteousness that comes from God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. 4. Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.
5. Moses describes in this way the righteousness that is by the law: “The man who does these things will live by them.” 6. But the righteousness that is by faith says: “Do not say in your heart, Who will ascend into heaven?;” (that is, to bring Christ down) 7. “Who will descend into the deep?;” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). 8. But what does it say? “The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,” that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming: 9. That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. 11. As the Scripture says, “Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame.” 12. For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, 13for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
14. How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? 15. And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”
16. But not all the Israelites accepted the good news. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our message?” 17. Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ. 18, But I ask: Did they not hear? Of course they did: “Their voice has gone out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.” 19. Again I ask: Did Israel not understand? First, Moses says, “I will make you envious by those who are not a nation; I will make you angry by a nation that has no understanding.” 20. And Isaiah boldly says, “I was found by those who did not seek me; I revealed myself to those who did not ask for me.” 21. But concerning Israel he says, “All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and obstinate people.”

We humans truly believe the old saying that laws are made to be broken. If we can be honest about this one thing about ourselves, we will make great progress toward recovery. There are many “religious” people in this world who believe one thing or another about who God is, and how people should live, but Jesus points out that in a true religion, the orphans and widows are taken care of. Recovery starts with the step that acknowledges that we are not god, and that we cannot on our own power ascend, or descend to where God may be. We can only humbly repent and ask for him to come to where we are and help us. We must say that he is Lord, and stop fooling ourselves and thinking that somehow we are the lord. This also is backed up by some action. By taking our own inventory, and sharing that inventory with God and others, we show that we mean business, and the power of those hurts habits and hang-ups is broken.

Lastly, we become God’s representatives here by sharing our experience, strength and hope with others. How else would this life changing message be spread to all who are in need?

What “laws” make you feel the most guilt or shame?

Do feel the need to chase God?

Do you feel God chasing you?

Have you felt the power of guilt and shame disappear through confession?

Have you shared with other your experience, strength and hope?

What do the following phrases mean to you?

“I was found by those who did not seek me.”

“All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and obstinate people”

Romans 9
God’s Sovereign Choice
1. I speak the truth in Christ “I am not lying, my conscience confirms it in the Holy Spirit“ 2. I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. 3. For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, those of my own race, 4. the people of Israel. Theirs is the adoption as sons; theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises. 5. Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of Christ, who is God over all, forever praised! Amen.
6. It is not as though God’s word had failed. For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel. 7. Nor because they are his descendants are they all Abraham’s children. On the contrary, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.” 8. In other words, it is not the natural children who are God’s children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham’s offspring. 9. For this was how the promise was stated: “At the appointed time I will return, and Sarah will have a son.”
10. Not only that, but Rebekah’s children had one and the same father, our father Isaac. 11Yet, before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad “in order that God’s purpose in election might stand: 12. not by works but by him who calls“she was told, “The older will serve the younger.” 13. Just as it is written: “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”
14. What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all! 15. For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” 16. It does not, therefore, depend on man’s desire or effort, but on God’s mercy. 17. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh: “I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” 18. Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden.
19. One of you will say to me: “Then why does God still blame us? For who resists his will?” 20. But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? “Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?’ ” 21. Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for common use?
22. What if God, choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath “prepared for destruction? 23. What if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory“ 24. even us, whom he also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles? 25. As he says in Hosea: “I will call them ‘my people’ who are not my people; and I will call her ‘my loved one’ who is not my loved one,” 26. and, “It will happen that in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’ ”
27. Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: “Though the number of the Israelites be like the sand by the sea, only the remnant will be saved. 28. For the Lord will carry out his sentence on earth with speed and finality.”
29. It is just as Isaiah said previously: “Unless the Lord Almighty had left us descendants, we would have become like Sodom, we would have been like Gomorrah.”
Israel’s Unbelief
30. What then shall we say? That the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained it, a righteousness that is by faith; 31. but Israel, who pursued a law of righteousness, has not attained it. 32. Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the “stumbling stone.” 33. As it is written: “See, I lay in Zion a stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame.”

One thing that separates us from the rest of God’s creatures is that we all too often ask “why?”. I think this was one of my favorite words growing up. This seemed to make one of my Dad’s favorite phrases “Because I said so!”. Well this was pretty accurate. My Dad was the ruler of his domain (his home and family), and the same can be said of God. God created us, made rules for us, we broke the rules, and so what do we deserve? Arguably, as a child of God, we deserve punishment, but are given mercy.
There is no lack of dysfunctional families in the Bible. Jacob’s family was just one of them. Rebecca knew ahead of time that the older would serve the younger, but it took an elaborate deception to convince Isaac. Perhaps this was unfair to Isaac and Esau, but nonetheless, it was all ultimately part of God’s plan.
Our lives are full of pain and injustice that perhaps become part of God’s ultimate plan for us. Jacob’s son Joseph said of his life “You meant it for bad, but God used it for good.”

Can you see bad things in your life that God has used for good?

What choices did God make for your life that you see as a mistake?

Romans 8(b)
Future Glory
18. I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. 19. The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. 20. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21. that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.
22. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. 24. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? 25But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.
26. In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. 27. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will.
More Than Conquerors
28. And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. 29. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.
31. What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32. He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? 33. Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34. Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died – more than that, who was raised to life – is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. 35. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36. As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” 37. No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39. neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

One of the hallmarks of chronic depression is the lack of hope. A life that is full of worries and striving will over a period of time reap hopelessness. It is very difficult to keep looking forward to the end where we win, when we seem to be beaten down every day. I really don’t think it’s an easy thing for us to wake up every morning and face each new day with an ever positive attitude that will always conquer all.
This is where life in community comes into play. As we share our true feelings with each other the pressure is released and we no longer feel like we always have to have all of the answers, or live with a fully joyful attitude every minute. As humans we can get dragged down from time to time. When being dragged down becomes a way of life, we need to find somebody to share life with. Two or more together can win battles where one person would be overwhelmed. After all, you cant watch your own back!

God’s word here offers much hope for our future. Can you believe that it is written to you?

What battles can these words help you find victory over?

Where do you run when you feel sad and lonely?

Does your future seem bright?